St. Luke of Crimea: The Meaning of Sorrows

Christ healing the Ten Lepers (source)

 
St. Luke of Crimea: The Meaning of Sorrows
Continuously, people ask why the Lord God sends them sorrows and many times very great trials. It is very important for every Christian to understand that our sorrows are sent according to the will of God, Who is always good and saving. Most of the time, they are not sent to us as punishments for our sins, but in order for us re-orient our paths and our hearts, or they are sent as a response to requests that we offer to God. People many times expect God to accomplish what they ask in prayers to Him in the manner that they think is best. God, however, continuously responds to our prayers in a totally different manner, and not according to how they wished or could imagine.

If they would ask, for example, for God to give them humility, they might imagine that slowly, day by day, humility would grow within their hearts under the beneficial affection of God. The Lord, however, continuously works in a different way: He sends them an unexpectedly harsh blow, which wounds their pride and their ego and which humbles them. Frequently, our God sends afflictions, and we complain and in no way think that, the majority of the times, this is a great beneficence of God, and most likely is the response of God to our prayers, with which we entreated Him to strengthen our faith.

Do you know recognize that, many times, our Lord sends us terrible bodily afflictions and wounds our body in order to strengthen us spiritually? This occurred with the Venerable Pimen the Much-suffering, who lived in asceticism in the Monastery of the [Kiev] Caves, and whose whole life was found on the bed of pain, enduring an incurable sickness, and through this manner, he reached sanctity. Other people, who give great significance to earthly goods, seek from the Lord to increase their wealth. And the Lord responds to them with the destruction of their properties with fires, and in this manner, He helps to turn them away from their attachment to earthly things and from their greed, and to correct their deviations from the correct path, which is taught to us by the Lord's Beatitudes.
  
God treats us like His true sons, whom He chastens for their good. The sorrows that are sent to us by the Lord, we must receive as St. Peter says: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you." (I Peter 5:6). If we cannot, despite all our efforts, come to understand the reason that God sends us sorrows, then at least let us humble ourselves below the mighty hand of God, and He will lift us up at the proper time, in order for us to understand His paths, with which He is leading us for this reason. We must, with great humility and without the smallest complaining, accept all the trials and sorrows that are sent to us from God, having the humble conviction that, with these, God is guiding us, and not that He is pouring His wrath upon us. (Isaiah 27:4) We usually think that the Lord is angry with us, and this is why He is sending us sorrows. No. Never think that God is angry. "God is love." (I John 4:8). And perfect love is foreign to any form of injustice.
 
But many times, when our God gives us a harsh blow, through which He humbles us and then later exalts us, we complain against God. Do you understand, however, what a serious sin is complaining against God? When we complain against God, it means that we perceive Him as unjust, we perceive that He has not treated us properly and that He must act towards us in a different manner. However, is it not a serious sin to condemn God for injustice and to slander Him? See, therefore, how great a sin is complaining against God. Because of this: "Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." (I Peter 1:17). We must pray greatly for our mistakes and for our impediments on our path to the Kingdom of the Heavens. But even more than that, we must have fear to break that great commandment of Christ: "Judge not, that you might not be judged." (Matthew 7:1). And complaining against God is not only judging God, but also condemning Him.
  
Let us lay aside judging those unfortunate people who willingly destroy themselves, whom our Lord Jesus Christ does not correct nor chasten, because they are not able to be corrected and are incurable. We only seek His help on our path towards salvation, that we might glorify Him and ever honor Him, together with His beginningless Father and the Lord Spirit. Amen.
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St. Luke the Blessed Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea (source)

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Elder Symeon on Healing and God's Providence

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Christ healing the Paralytic (source)

   

"The sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is for the healing of our illnesses. If we are not healed, we don't need to be healed. This is why we were not healed. If you comprehend this lack of healing, you already healed. You know already that an illness, which lingers and does not leave, is precious.

"Whatever needs to go, God will remove. Whatever doesn't need to stay, God removes, whether it is an illness or a demonic influence. And for whatever things that continue on and hurt us, we should pray to God. We should pray multiple times, again and again we should pray, not only for deliverance from our soul's illnesses and the demonic influences, but also for deliverance from bodily illnesses, as well.

"Let us pray to God for everything again and again. Not because God needs to hear our prayers repetitiously, but because we need to demonstrate by our seeking of Him, our faith. For modern man such lessons are learned from repetition.

"If you pray again and again and you will need to do this, and God does not answer your prayer or remove your illnesses, realize this: either you have not shown as much faith as He wants and expects from you, or the illness should not go because it is necessary for you.

"If you understand your illness from God's perspective, then, when it remains, you will feel twice healed. If He heals you, you are healed once. If the illness lingers, you will feel healed twice. Both when the time comes to be healed from your illness and at the right time your soul will experience healing also. When this occurs your inner person will be healed, this is the person who suffers from illness, from the leprosy of sin.

"The same goes for all mental illness and whatever else hurts us.

"If man sees all his issues within the providence of God, he will feel such a relief, as if all his problems are solved.

"Because in God all is resolved!"
-Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos (+2015),
Excerpt from the Book: Are You in Pain? Looking deeply into the mystery of pain
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Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly, the Lord is risen!

"When you have this love, you don't have to worry about anything, not even death..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)

   

"Mrs. Christina M. from Athens wrote: I was suffering with pain in my spine. One night, the pain got so bad and it reached my neck. I went to my room and crying I begged God to help me through Saint Efraim. The pain of my soul was very strong and for a moment, I felt the presence of the Saint and His sacred little hand to pet my forehead softly. I was like a 4 year old child. Crying I said, "My Saint, help." He started to comfort me, not for my physical pain, but for the pain of my soul."

"Why are you crying, my child? Stop crying and listen to me. I am Saint Efraim. The love you are looking for, my child, the real love only God has it and He gives it to those creatures who love Him and He loves them. I have come now to announce to you God's Love for you. When you have this love, you don't have to worry about anything, not even death. Because God's love can save you and protect you from any illness and misfortune and guard you soul with an impenetrable wall so that no one will be able to violate it. Watch out though that until the end of your life, you will not lose the love of God and of the search for people." He said that and He left.

I cried, "My Saint, don't go. Please stay a little longer. In this world, I have no one else, but God and you. Protect me from ingratitude. Protect me from sin. Protect me so I will be able to safeguard the love of God."

From that moment, my suffering was gone like a thread that was cut. My grievance was also gone..."
 
Excerpt from the book: Visions and Miracles of the Great Martyr and Miracle-Worker Ephraim Neophanous
 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly, the Lord is risen!

Elder Vasilios of Iveron on Pascha 2020

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

The Resurrection of Christ (source)

"This year, the Resurrection tells us many things. If it is true what we believe, and if we are living that which we chant, that "we celebrate the death of death, the deposition of Hades, and the beginning of another, eternal life" (Canon of Pascha), then we would fear for nothing. And every single threat increases the power of the presence of the risen Lord.

"That which occurred this year with the Coronavirus is a temptation, but all temptations are transformed into blessings. We chant "let us say, O brethren, even to those who hate us." (Doxastikon of Pascha) And those who hate us are waiting for our love, and those who do not believe are waiting for the power of our faith. Therefore, if one believes, through this trial he has celebrated the best Pascha this year. In order to have the best Pascha at the time when you cannot celebrate Pascha, one must sense the power of the Risen One, and thus have community with all men.

"And while a temptation such as an illness can create problems, it can reveal the presence of the risen Lord. Amidst the messages and from within the souls of all men comes forth a consolation. The hymn of Kassiane says: "Who can recount the multitude of my sins, and the abysses of Your judgments, my soul-saving Savior?" On the one hand, there is the totality of sins and weaknesses. And on the other hand, there is an abyss of compassions, a bottomless ocean, where storms occur not just to clean out the debris that has accumulated in the lakes, but also to pour forth the element of healing.

"Therefore, the Church rejoices even more at the presence of the Risen One through this trial. And at the same time is also tested the material strength of our faith, and reveals the weakness of him who does not believe, but also, he who believes in himself and in his virtue. Therefore we have this current phenomenon. Some of the faithful--I don't know how to name them--trying to give consolation, condemn. They condemn the Church, and in essence, they reveal their own weakness. Therefore, let us thank the risen Christ, His Mother the Most-Holy Theotokos, and all the Saints who hold within them the Paradise of life.

"Let us entreat Christ to strengthen the truth of our humility, in other words, for us to sense our own weakness until our whole self is Christ. And then we can say together with the Apostle Paul: "For whether we live or die, we are with the Lord." Either we are living, or we are dead in the flesh, but our life is Christ. Therefore, "Christ is risen, and life reigns, Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the tomb." (Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom) To Him belongs the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen."
-Elder Vasilios (Gontikakis), former Abbot of Iveron Monastery, Mount Athos
(source)
  

Christ is risen from the death, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

Photios Kontoglou: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord"

Christ raising Lazarus, by Photios Kontoglou (source)

  
Photios Kontoglou: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord"
He Whose throne is heaven, and Whose footstool is the earth, the Son of God and His Logos, Who is eternal with Him, today humbles Himself, and comes to Bethany on a little donkey.

And the children of the Hebrews received Him, crying out: "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He Who comes, the King of Israel."

The warlords of the world, when they would finish a war and threw down their enemies, they would return glorified, and sitting on golden chariots to enter their city. Before them would go the trumpets and flags and brave generals and a multitude of soldiers, covered with iron armor and bearing weapons around a chariot that was filled with many pieces of armor and swords and spears that remained from the conquered nation.

Similar things like these were the great nails that they used in the Crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ!

All of these warriors were iron-clad like wild beasts, their heads locked within fearsome helmets, their spears and hairy hands were bloodied from war, their strong legs walked proudly and stretched, like a lion that tore apart a deer with its claws and stretches with roars and frightens the world.

Later would come the golden chariot of the warlord, where he would sit on a throne, adorned with precious stones, proud, haughty, fearsome, who could not be looked upon in the eye without averting one's gaze, carrying his terrible scepter, whose every movement of his command was an order, without opening the mouth of the one holding it.

Horses on that day, were harnessed to that chariot, with gold-embroidered straps with carousels and they also walked pompously and proudly like the humans. A beautiful girl, like a fairy, was decorated, holding a golden crown above the head of the champion, and other girls and boys tossed incense and other spices in great censers shaped like candelabras.

Behind them came the men and women who were taken as slaves, who were sick and wounded, and they were being dragged by the soldiers who struck them.

As much glory as the people had in front, so much disdain and misfortune had those who followed behind. They were bound with ropes and chains, many were pierced, tattered, wounded, jaundiced and half-dead, from their martyrdoms and from their vigils. Many were half-naked and their backs were darkened from the whips. Among them were women, ashamed virgins, stolen mothers with their innocent children in their hands, elderly who were holding on to their grandchildren by the hand, all traumatized like lamps going to the marketplace. Around them, the world grew insane and cried out, glorifying the victor, with many mouths foaming. A cry rose like smoke above the whole city. This scene, they called a "triumph."

One such triumph is performed today by Christ, the Price of Peace and of Love. However, He has changed all the rest and turned it upside down from what men were used to, and thus, His triumph is the triumph of poverty and humility.

The Roman ruler was seated upon a throne and golden chariot, but Christ is seated on a little donkey, possibly among the most humble and disdained among the animals.

And He Himself was humble, meek, silent, poorly-dressed, as the Prophecy which says: "Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold your King is coming, meek and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zachariah 9:9) His hand had never held a scepter, but blessed the world. He Himself is returning from war, but a war much more difficult to win, a war against evil and falsehood and hypocrisy and love of money.

And He was not going to rest from that war, but was going to begin another, even harder, to be crowned with a crown of thorns, and to be beaten and to mocked, and in the end, to be nailed upon a Cross like an evil-doer.

He was not surrounded by wild servants, but by innocent fishermen, who were disdained like Him. And He neither carried behind Him slaves that He tyrannized, but men whom He freed from the slavery of the Devil, and the dead whom He had raised through His voice.

They did not blare trumpets and drums to glorify Him, but innocent children, which symbolized the simplicity which Christians have, cried out: "Blessed is He Who comes", and instead of holding flags waved the green branches of trees. Verdant branches and clothes strewn on the road for the donkey to walk over.

And this blessed donkey, with a bowed head, humble, ignorant, bore Christ Who was sitting on its back, Whom the fiery six-winged Seraphim stand about with fear. He was not carried by a golden chariot, nor a prized stallion, nor even a seat held by others, but by a little donkey. What eye does not shed a tear and is not astonished by this mystery!

Christ overturned what sinful man saw regarding what is right and true. Who, however, is in the position to sense the freedom which He brings us, and would follow the donkey, and not the fine horses that glow proudly, which enter Rome with many idols, instead of entering together into the kingdom of Peace, the Jerusalem on high?

Many "serious" people, one could say, did not understand this, saying that the children where childish, and the men were manly. The same was said by the high priests, men of authority: But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant;  and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there." (Matthew 21:15-17)

The chief priests and the scribes had read the Psalm of David which said how the Christ would be met by the babes and they did not believe Him Whom they hymned. And if we have read today's Gospel and the Psalm and what Christ said to the Hebrews, would we not be judged more strictly than if we had not believed Him? Our vanity and our pride prevent us from going along His poor path, and we are ashamed to follow a leader Who is riding upon a donkey. We don't want the humble, the poor. Can one become a Christian who does not love that which Christ loved?

Yesterday, Saturday, He raised a dead man, Lazaros. Who was this Lazaros? Was he a notable, famous person? Lazaros was a poor villager, but as the Gospel says, he was a friend of Christ, Who would have all men as His friends.

The Gospel notes that Christ had a friend in the world, and that he was poor and unlearned. But who among us loves this rich poverty of Christ? Where Christ is missing, there is the true poverty, because where Christ is missing, there is also missing true life and death rules. This you would understand well if you look around you and ponder. Where are those almighty Roman leaders who made their triumphant entry, as we described above?  What happened to them, and the myriads that worshiped them and knelt before them like the reeds before the north wind? Who brings to mind those who wrote the history of that time?

Bodies, souls, thrones, diamonds, horses, pride, horrors, voices, all fell into a pit and were lost and extinguished as if they had never been drunk. And what is left of all this in people's hearts? Nothing and even less than nothing.

But man is unfaithful even to what he sees and what he grasps with his hands, and he pulls the path that they have taken, and he happily drags Nero's chariot, because "his neck is iron." His ears are pricked by Him Who says: "I am God, the first and the last, I am. I nourish my sheep and I will give them rest." He Who was sitting upon the donkey, it is He Who remains alive within simple souls unto the ages, and is for them a source of nourishment, a source of immortality, joy and delight, according to the words that say: "The heart of those who seek the Lord shall rejoice."

Yes, whoever senses the joy of Christ, is like that dead man [Lazaros] who was raised. There are many kinds of pain in the world. Those who suffer in body and soul, their pain cleanses them and takes them to God, and these are the beloved ones of Christ and walk in His army with His consoling light. The others suffer futily. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.  For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death." (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

For those who hope in God, Christ transforms their futile sweat into sweat of salvation "a refreshing sweat", but we mourn and are pained in every way like the idolaters, slaughtered by the knives of fate. They did not allow their sweat of agony to become transformed into sweat of prayer and hope.

Whoever does not believe in Christ and in the Gospel is dead, as no true life exists within him. Because life does not mean to breath and to walk and to eat and drink, but to sense the grace of immortality. Then, one can chant together with that exceptional hymn that is the Apolytikion:

"By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your passion, You did confirm the universal Resurrection, O Christ God! Like the children with the palms of victory,  we cry out to You, O Vanquisher of death; Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!

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Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. John Chrysostom on Job's Suffering as Consolation

Holy Prophet Job (source)

  
St. John Chrysostom on Job's Suffering as Consolation
On both sides, beloved, reap the utmost gain, and avoid the imitation of Adam knowing how many ills are begotten of laziness and imitate the piety of Job, learning how many glorious things spring from earnestness. Consider him, the conqueror throughout, and you shall have much consolation in all pain and peril. For as it were in the common theatre of the world that blessed and noble man stands forth, and by means of the sufferings which happened to him, discourses to all to bear all things which befall them nobly and never give in to the troubles which come upon them. For verily, there is no human suffering which cannot receive consolation as a result. For the sufferings which are scattered over the whole world, these came together, and bore down upon one body, that of Job. What pardon then shall there be for him who is unable to bear with thankfulness his share of the troubles which are brought upon him? Since he appears not bearing a part only, but the entire ills of all men, and in order that you may not condemn the extravagance of my words, come, and let us take in hand severally the ills that came upon him, and bring forward this fulfillment of them.
  
And if you wish, let us first bring forward that which seems to be the most unendurable of all, I mean poverty, and the pain which arises from it. For everywhere all men bewail this. Who was poorer, then, than Job, who was poorer than the outcasts at the baths and those who sleep in the ashes of the furnace, poorer in fact than all men? For these, indeed, have one ragged garment, but he sat naked, and had only the garment which nature supplies, the clothing of the flesh, and this the Devil destroyed on all sides with a distressing kind of decay. Again, these poor folk are at least under the roof of the porches at the baths and are covered with a shelter, but he continued always to pass his nights in the open air, not having even the consolation of a bare roof. And what is still greater, the fact that these are conscious of many terrible evils within themselves, but he was conscious of nothing against himself. For this is to be noticed in each of the things which happened to him, a thing which caused him greater pain, and produced more perplexity; the ignorance of the reason of what took place. These persons, then, as I said, would have many things with which to reproach themselves. And this contributes much to consolation in calamity; to be conscious in oneself of being punished justly. But he was deprived of this consolation, and while exhibiting a conversation full of virtue, endured the fate of those who had dared to do extreme wickedness. And these folk who are with us, are poor from the outset, and from the beginning are experienced in calamity. But he endured calamity in which he was unexperienced, undergoing the immense change from wealth. As then the knowledge of the cause of what takes place, is the greatest consolation; so it is not less than this, to have been experienced in poverty from the beginning and so to continue in it. Of both these consolations that man was deprived, and not even then, did he fall away. Do you see him indeed come to extreme poverty, even in comparison with which it is impossible to find a fellow? For what could be poorer than the naked who has not even a roof over him? Yes rather not even was it in his power to enjoy the bare ground, but he sat upon the dunghill. Therefore whenever you see yourself come to poverty, consider the suffering of the just one, and straightway you shall rise up, and shake off every thought of despondency. This one calamity therefore seems to men to be the groundwork of all sufferings together.
  
And the second after it, yes rather before it, is the affliction of the body. Who then was even so disabled? Who endured such disease? Who received or saw any one else receive so great an affliction? No one. Little by little, his body was wasted, and a stream of worms on every side issued from his limbs; the running was constant; the evil smell which surrounded him was strong, the body being destroyed little by little, and decaying with such putrefaction, used to make food distasteful; and hunger was to him strange and unusual. For not even was he able to enjoy the nourishment which was given to him. For he says, “I see my food to be loathsome” (Job 6:7). Whenever, then, you fall into weakness, O man, remember that body and that saintly flesh, for it was saintly and pure, even when it had so many wounds. And if any one belong to the army, and then unjustly and without any reasonable pretext, be hanged upon the pillory², and has his sides rasped to pieces, let him not think the matter to be a reproach, nor let him give way to the pain when he thinks upon this saint. But this man, says one, has much comfort and consolation in knowing that God was bringing these sufferings upon him. This indeed especially troubled and disturbed him, to think that the just God Who had in every way been served by him was at war with him. And he was not able to find any reasonable pretext for what took place, since, when at least he afterwards learned the cause, see what piety he showed, for when God said to him “Do you think that I have had dealings with you in order that you might appear righteous?” (Job 40:8), he says while conscious-stricken, “I will lay my hand upon my mouth, once have I spoken but to a second word I will not proceed,” (Job 40:4, 5), and again “as far as the hearing of the ear I have heard you before, but now mine eye has seen you, wherefore I have held myself to be vile, and am wasted away, and I consider myself to be earth and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6).
  
But if you think that this is sufficient for consolation, you will yourself also be able to experience this comfort. And even if you do not suffer any of these misfortunes at the hands of God, but owing to the insolence of men — and yet give thanks and do not blaspheme Him Who is able to prevent them indeed, but Who permits them for the sake of testing you — just as they who suffer at the hands of God are crowned, so also you shall obtain the same reward, because you have borne nobly the calamities which were brought upon you from men and did give thanks to Him Who was able indeed to hinder them, but not willing.
  
Behold, then! You have seen poverty and disease, and both in the extremest degree brought upon this just man. Do you wish that I should show you the warfare at nature’s hands, in such excessive degree waged then against this noble man? He lost ten children, the ten at one fell swoop, the ten in the very bloom of youth, ten who displayed much virtue, and that not by the common law of nature, but by a violent and pitiable death. Who could be able to recount so great a calamity? No one. Whenever, therefore, you lose son and daughter together, have recourse to this just man, and you shall find altogether much comfort for yourself. Were these, then, the only misfortunes which happened to him? The desertion and treachery of his friends, the gibes, raillery, mockery and derision, and the tearing in pieces by all was something intolerable. For the character of calamities is not of such a kind, that they who reproach us about our calamities are inclined to vex our soul. Not only was there no one to soothe him, but many from all sides troubled him with taunts. And you see him lamenting this bitterly and saying, “but even you, too, fell upon me” (Job 19:5). He calls them pitiless and says, “My neighbors have rejected me, and my servants spoke against me, and I called the sons of my concubines, and they turned away from me” (Job 19:14, 16). “And others,” he says, “sport upon me, and I became the common talk of all (Job 19:9, 10). And my very raiment,” he says, “abhorred me” (Job 9:31). These things at least are unbearable to hear, still more to endure in their reality, extreme poverty, and intolerable disease new and strange, the loss of children so many and so good, and in such a manner, reproaches and gibes, and insults from men. Some indeed mocked, some reproached, and others despised; not only enemies, but even friends; not only friends, but even servants, and they not only mock and reproach, but even abhorred him, and this not for two or three, or ten days, but for many months; and (a circumstance which happened in that man’s case alone) not even did he have comfort by night, but the delusions of terrors by night were a greater aggravation of his misfortunes by day. For that he endured more grievous things in his sleep, hear what he says “why do you frighten me in sleep, and terrify me in visions?” (Job 7:14). What man of iron, what heart of steel could have endured so many misfortunes? For if each of these was unbearable in itself, consider what a tumult their simultaneous approach excited. But nevertheless he bore all these, and in all that happened to him he sinned not, nor was there guile in his lips.
  
Let the sufferings of that man then be the medicines for our ills, and his grievous surging sea the harbor of our sufferings, and in each of the accidents which befall us, let us consider this saint, and seeing one person exhausting the misfortunes of the universe, we shall conduct ourselves bravely in those which fall to our share, and as to some affectionate mother, stretching forth her hands on all sides, and receiving and reviving her terrified children, so let us always flee to this book, and even if the pitiable troubles of all men assail us, let us take sufficient comfort for all and so depart. And if you sayest, he was Job, and for this reason bore all this, but I am not like him; you supply me with a greater accusation against yourself and fresh praise of him. For it is more likely that you should be able to bear all this than he. Why, you ask? Because he indeed was before the day of grace and of the law, when there was not much strictness of life, when the grace of the Spirit was not so great, when sin was hard to fight against, when the curse prevailed and when death was terrible. But now our wrestlings have become easier, all these things being removed after the coming of Christ; so that we have no excuse, when we are unable to reach the same standard as he, after so long a time, and such advantage, and so many gifts given to us by God. Considering therefore all these things, that misfortunes were greater for him, and that when the conflict was more grievous, then he stripped for the contest; let us bear all that comes upon us nobly, and with much thankfulness, in order that we may be able to obtain the same crown as he, by the grace and lovingkindness of Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.
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Excerpt from a 12th century illuminated manuscript of the Book of Job from Great Lavra, Mount Athos, depicting the Pre-incarnate Logos speaking to Job "through the whirlwind and clouds" (Job 38:1), coming to console and vindicate him (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Bishop Alexis of Bethesda on the Current Crisis

An ascetic in private prayer for the world (source)

  
3/25/2020 - "Some Thoughts on the Crisis and the Call of the Corona Virus"
by Bishop Alexis of Bethesda (OCA)
The Bishops of the Holy Orthodox Church love their flocks and ever strive to lead them to well-watered and rich pastures. They care for them, body and soul. In so doing, they are following their Master Christ who not only “cast out unclean spirits,” but also healed “all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (Matthew 10:1). In the Gospels, we see that Christ sometimes treated the soul first and the body second; at other times, the body first and the soul second. In the presence of the highly contagious and potentially lethal corona virus, the Bishops’ concern is for the bodily welfare of their people lest even a single lamb be needlessly lost. This is not from a lack of faith or dearth of compassion, but from unwavering faith and an abundance of compassion.
  
Compassion is expressed in giving each sinner the time necessary to repent, for in “hell there is no repentance” (Saint John of Damascus). Faith is expressed in the certainty that our Lord can always be in our midst, that He can always be by our side, for the Psalmist proclaims, “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there” (Psalm 139:8). And if I am shut up in my home away from Church, “Thou art there,” even as the Lord was there for and with the Apostle Peter when he was locked up in prison, so He is there for and with us.
  
During times of uncertainty, anxiety, and fear, we naturally turn to God for refuge, peace, and courage. This is our birthright as baptized Orthodox Christians. Indeed, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth should change” (Psalm 46:1-2). With the corona virus, the earth has changed, but we do not fear. The faithful are isolated in their homes, physically separated from loved ones, and even unable to gather together as the Church for the celebration of the mysteries, but we do not fear, for God remains our refuge, our peace, and source of courage. Many are understandably discouraged and downcast about the decision to ban eucharistic gatherings in Church for the sake of the health of our neighbor whom we love. Yet, God remains our refuge, our peace, and our source of courage. Within this trial, this threat to so much that we hold so very dear, there is a call that is given and a promise that beckons. But to hear that call and see the fulfilment of that promise, we need to approach our Savior as His faithful children have always approached Him, not with self-righteous indignation or self-pitying despondency, but with humble, patient hope.
  
The call is to prayer of the heart. The promise is the purifying and illumining grace of the Holy Spirit. In the emphasis on more frequent communion over the past forty years, we might be tempted to neglect the necessary ongoing moment-to-moment inner communion with Christ by prayer, that talking with Him and walking with Him that characterized most of the lives of the Apostles before and after the institution of the Mystical Supper. Many of our greatest saints were deprived of Holy Communion for periods of time that for us would be unbearable to contemplate, but that for them were periods of continued growth from glory to glory, because they were never without Holy Communion with Christ through prayer. Prayer is not easy; it requires concentration, dedication, and love, but through the gates of prayer, we can touch Christ, Christ can touch us, and we can be healed. It is imperative for us all to learn to serve Liturgy at the Altar of the heart and the time is now at hand.
  
During this crisis of the corona virus, we are given the opportunity to become men and women of deep prayer. We are given the occasion to “enter into our closet, and when we have shut the door, pray to our Father which is in secret” (Matthew 6:6), offering Him our repentance, our gratitude, and our love. We can come to understand that “prayer is a safe fortress, a sheltered harbor, a protector of the virtues, a destroyer of passions. It brings vigor to the soul, purifies the mind, gives rest to those who suffer, consoles those who mourn. Prayer is converse with God, contemplation of the invisible, the angelic mode of life, a stimulus towards the divine, the assurance of things longed for, ‘making real the things for which we hope’” (Theodore, the Great Ascetic, Century 1:61).  As Saint Sophrony of Essex puts it, “prayer is infinite creation, far superior to any form of art or science. Through prayer we enter into communion with Him that was before all worlds…Prayer is delight for the Spirit.” (On Prayer, 9).
  
The Elder Aimlianos whose love for the Divine Liturgy was incomparable once said, “It is pointless to go to Church, unnecessary to attend Liturgy, and useless to commune, when I am not constantly praying” (The Church at Prayer, 14).  A spiritual life of private prayer is not a monastic prerogative, but the common inheritance of all the faithful. The saintly elder further notes, “The harm that befalls us if we do not know how to pray is incalculable. Incalculable? It is the only harm from which we suffer. There is no catastrophe that can compare to it. If all the stars and all the planets were to collide with one another, and the universe to shatter into smithereens, the damage would be far less than that which befalls us if we don’t know how to pray”  (The Church at Prayer, 10). The threat of the virus perhaps can open our eyes to the threat of not knowing how to pray to God in our heart. The threat of the virus may turn into a blessing that can enliven our spiritual life.
  
The temptation before us is to deafen our ears to this call to active, arduous prayer to approach God and instead to prefer more passive, easier ways for God to approach us. Now is not the time to try to devise any means to avoid this prayer in private, but it is the time to heed the call to prayer in our heart to the God of our heart. There is a rich, inner world beckoning to us, a world where God is all in God. Let’s take the gift of this time to enter into that world.  And if we do so, when we come together for the Divine Liturgy with a yearning magnified by distance apart, that Liturgy will be more radiant and more angelic than anything we have known before. Through a deep life of inner prayer, we will indeed learn how to set aside all earthly cares, that we may receive the King of all.
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The Holy Prophet Jonah (source)

  
4/3/2020 - "The Sign of the Prophet Jonah in our days"
by Bishop Alexis of Bethesda (OCA)
“For those with eyes to see and ears to hear,” these days of being in the belly of the whale, physically separated not only from one another, but also from our beloved Churches and places of prayer, we have a rare opportunity for spiritual growth. In this crisis that has overcome the entire inhabited world, we are given the sign of Jonah that calls forth a response from us all. Saint Ephraim the Syrian writes, “the sign of Jonah served the Ninevites in two ways. If they would have rejected it, they would have gone down to Sheol alive like Jonah, but they were raised from the dead like him because they repented.” The sign of Jonah that is given to us in our forced isolation out of love for our neighbor is a call to repentance, a call to change the way we look at the world around us, the world within us, and the world beyond us. As I suggested in an earlier reflection, it is an opportunity to become men and women of deep prayer who have learned to serve the Divine Liturgy on the altar of their hearts.
  
There are many books about how to pray from which believers can learn the art of prayer. There are many prayer books that have morning prayers, evening prayers, services of supplication, and akathists that the faithful can read on a daily basis. There are the Psalms of David that we can chant throughout the day enabling us to pour out our entire heart before God. And of course, there is the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me,” that every God-loving soul can say, again and again and again, so that it falls like a droplet of pure water upon our stony hearts refashioning them into hearts of flesh that can welcome the King of glory. But all these beautiful, holy words will enable us to touch the hem of Christ’s garment and to become more Christlike in the process only if we say them with the proper disposition of the heart, a heart that is humble, a heart that yields, a heart that can effortlessly utter the words of the Most Pure Virgin, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
  
This Holy Week and Pascha, the Covid-19 pandemic has given the faithful a hard saying. They will be deprived of celebrating these high and holy days in their parishes. They will be deprived of receiving holy communion. Nevertheless, they need not, now or ever, be deprived of Christ, for nothing, neither death nor life, neither things present nor things to come, can ever “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). It may be tempting to become angry or despondent, but neither of these states will enable us to pray to God or permit God to approach us. Neither of these responses will help us to receive the sign of Jonah given to our generation. What will enable us to pray is a humble acceptance of our condition in which we make peace with this world as it is, a willingness to yield before that which we cannot control, and then even further to give thanks for the fact that our own will, no matter how good and holy it may seem to us, is being cut off by the severe sanctions now in place. This may sound strange to those unfamiliar with our monastic tradition, but truly when the will is cut off, “the holy soul steadily ascends to heaven as upon golden wings” (Saint John of the Ladder) by virtue of holy obedience. In other words, gently, graciously, and gratefully yielding to this situation with humble acceptance will enable us to pray as we have never prayed before.
  
Obedience is not easy. It is “the tomb of the will,” but it is also “the resurrection of humility,” (Saint John of the Ladder), humility, which is “the very raiment of the Godhead” (Saint Isaac the Syrian). In humble obedience, we are following not only the path of the holy fathers of old, we are walking not only in the footsteps of the Apostles who strove to be obedient to every commandment of their beloved Lord, but we are also imitating our Lord Himself, who “as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phillipians 2:8). But death is never the last word with respect to obedience, the final word is always life, abundant life, life everlasting. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phillipians 2:9-11).
  
Let us receive humbly the sign of the Prophet Jonah in a way that leads to the light and life that are ours in Christ Jesus. This Pascha, let’s sanctify our homes and lives in wonderful ways. Let’s humbly do whatever is necessary to make one room in our home into a Church. If we don’t have an oil lamp burning before the icon of the Most Pure Virgin Theotokos, let’s try to acquire one. If we don’t have a hand censer, charcoal, and incense, let’s decide to order them. And then with a humble, but grateful heart, let’s worship the holy Lord Jesus Christ, the only sinless One. Let’s venerate the icons in our homes, let’s light our vigil light, let’s cense our icons, let’s make our prostrations, and let’s make the words of whatever prayers we offer our own. Let’s mean what we say. Let’s trust in the Lord. Saint Isaac the Syrian once wrote, “The prayer of a humble man is like a word spoken from the mouth into an ear.” Let’s speak to God now as his humbled children, for in this time of trial, He will surely “hearken unto the voice of our cry” (Psalm 5:2) and in turn make our peace as a river and our righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18).
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Christ in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His Passion (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

"O Champion General, I your City now inscribe to you..."

The Theotokos appearing and delivering Constantinople from the siege (source)

  

Deceased have been quickened through your power, * for pregnant were you with life hypostasized. * They who once were speechless now * speak with newfound eloquence. * Diseases are exterminated, lepers purified. * The legions of * the aerial spirits, * O Virgin, are defeated, for you are man’s salvation.

-from the Canon of the Akathist, by St. Joseph the Hymnographer

 

Tone Eight (Pl. IV). Original Melody.

O Champion General, I your City now inscribe to you

 Triumphant anthems as the tokens of my gratitude,

Being rescued from the terrors, O Theotokos.

Inasmuch as you have power unassailable,

From all kinds of perils free me so that unto you

I may cry aloud: Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.

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The wondrous Icon of the Theotokos and Christ "Of the Akathist", treasured to this day by Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos. This was the icon carried by Patriarch Sergios in procession and prayer along the walls of Constantinople when she was being sieged by a seemingly invincible foreign army. The Theotokos later appeared and wondrously defended the Christians, and may she ever hearken to our prayers to defend us from our enemies, visible and invisible! (source)

  

Most-holy Theotokos save us!

Paraklesis to St. Luke the Surgeon (Greek)

Paraklesis (Supplication Service) to St. Luke the Blessed Surgeon of Simferopol (in Greek), for healing of soul and body, served in the Church of St. Panteleimon, Ampelokipi, Thessaloniki (source)

  

Sts. Nektarios of Pentapolis and Luke of Simferopol, two great hierarchs and Wonderworkers of the 20th century (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

"My mind is wounded, my body is feeble, my spirit is sick..."

Christ healing the sick (source)

  

My mind is wounded, my body is feeble, my spirit is sick, my speech has lost its power, my life is ebbing, and the end is at the door. What shalt thou do, O miserable soul, when the Judge comes to examine thy deeds?

I have reviewed for thee, O my soul, Moses’ account of the creation of the world, and then all of the canonical Scripture that tells the story of both the righteous and the wicked. But thou, my soul, hast followed the ways of the wicked and hast sinned against God.

The Law is grown weak, the Gospel unpracticed, and the whole of Scripture is ignored by thee; the Prophets fail and the words of the righteous are useless. Thy wounds, O soul, have multiplied, and there is no physician to heal thee.

I will now show thee, O my soul, examples from the New Testament, to lead thee to repentance. Follow the example of the righteous and avoid following the ways of the sinners and strive to regain the grace of Christ through prayer and fasting, purity and reverence.

Christ became man, calling thieves and harlots to repentance. Repent then, O my soul! For the doors of the Kingdom are already opened and the Publicans and penitent Pharisees and adulterers pass through before thee.

Christ became man by assuming my flesh and He willingly experienced all that belongs to our nature apart from our sin. Thus, He set before thee, O my soul, an example and image of His own condescension.

 

Healing sickness, Christ the Word preached the Gospel to the poor, cured the crippled, ate with publicans, and conversed with the sinners; and with the touch of His hand, He brought back the departed soul of Jairus’ daughter.

 

Do not require of me worthy fruits of repentance, for my strength has failed within me. Rather, grant me an ever-contrite heart and a poor and simple spirit, that I may offer them to Thee as a pleasing sacrifice, O only Savior.

  

O my Judge Who knowest me, look upon me with Thy merciful eye when Thou comest again with the Angels to judge the whole world, and spare me; take pity on me, O Jesus, for I have sinned more than any other.

-Excerpts from the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Excerpts from St. John of the Ladder on Illness

Christ healing the paralytic (source)

  

"When we see one of our athletes in Christ in bodily suffering and infirmity, let us not maliciously seek to learn the explanation of his illness, but rather with simple and genuine love let us try to heal him as though he were part of our own body, and as a fellow warrior wounded in the fray.

"Sickness is sometimes for the cleansing of sins, and sometimes to humble our mind.

"All that happens to us, seen or unseen, can be taken by us in a good or a passionate or some middle disposition. I saw three brethren punished: one was angry, one suppressed his grief, but the third reaped the fruit of great joy."
-St. John of the Ladder

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St. John Climacus (source)

  

Through the prayers of your Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

Elder Zacharias of Essex on the Coronavirus

The Desert Father in prayer (source)

  
Elder Zacharias of Essex on the Coronavirus

Many people are in confusion and others panic because of the threat of the Coronavirus epidemic that spread in the whole world. I think, however, that this should not happen, for whatever God does with us, He does it out of love. The God of Christians is a good God, a God of mercy and loving kindness, ‘Who loveth mankind’. God created us out of His goodness in order to share His life and even His glory with us. When we fell into sin, He allowed death to enter our life again out of goodness, so that we may not become immortal in our wickedness, but to seek for a way of salvation. Although we have fallen, God has never stopped to provide for us, not only material goods in order to sustain our race, but He also sent prophets and righteous, preparing His way so that He might come and solve our tragedy, and bring eternal salvation through the Cross and Resurrection of His inconceivable love. He came and took upon Himself the curse of sin, and He showed His love to the end: ‘Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end’ (John 13:1). All the things that God did when He created us, when He provided goods in order to sustain the world, when He prepared His way for Him to come on earth, when He came Himself in person and wrought our salvation in such an awesome way, all these things He did out of goodness. His goodness is boundless. He saves us and is so longsuffering towards us, waiting until we ‘come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:4) and bring true repentance, so that we may be with Him for all eternity. Thus, at every stage of His relationship with man, our God shows only His goodness and mercy, ‘which is better than life’ (Ps. 63:3); goodness is His Nature and He does all things for the benefit and salvation of man.

 

Consequently, when He shall come again to judge the world, will a different God judge it? Will it not be the same good God, the God of mercy and loving kindness, Who loves mankind? Let us be certain that we shall not appear before any other God than Him Who created us and saved us. And so, it is again with the same mercy and love that He will judge us. For this reason, we should neither panic nor waver, for it will be the same God that will receive us in the other life and will judge us with the same kindness and compassion. Some fear that the hour of their end has come. This plague of Coronavirus has also a positive aspect, because we have a few weeks from the moment it will assail us until our end. Therefore, we can dedicate this time to prepare ourselves for our meeting with God, so that our departure may not occur unexpectedly and without preparation, but after we have run through our whole life each time we stand in prayer before God, at times with thanksgiving unto the end for all the things God has done for us and at other times with repentance, seeking the forgiveness of our transgressions. Nothing can harm us with such a God, Who allows all things out of His goodness. We must simply keep thanksgiving unto the end and the humble prayer of repentance for the forgiveness of our sins.

 

As for myself, this plague is helping me. I longed to find again the prayer I had before, with which I can run through my whole life from my birth until now, thanking God for all His benefits ‘whereof I know and whereof I know not’; and also, with which I can run through my whole life repenting for all my sins and transgressions. It is wonderful to be able to run through your life praying, bringing all things before God with persistence in prayer. Then you feel that your life is redeemed. This is why this situation is truly helping me. I am not panicking but ‘I will be sorry for my sin’ (Ps. 38:18).

 

We must see the goodness of God in all the things that are happening now. The Holy Fathers did see His loving kindness. A similar epidemic occurred in the 4th century in the Egyptian desert, which harvested more than a third of the monks, and the Fathers were saying with great inspiration that, ‘God is harvesting souls of saints for His Kingdom,’ and they did not waver. The Lord Himself speaks in the Gospel about the last days, about the trials and afflictions which the world will go through before His Second Coming. However, we discern neither morbid sadness nor despair in His words. The Lord Who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane with a sweat of blood for the salvation of the whole world, says that when we see the terrible things that precede His Second Coming, we should lift up our heads with inspiration, for our redemption draws nigh (cf. Luke 21:28). Some tell me, ‘May God extend His helping hand.’ But this is precisely the hand of God. He desires and works our salvation ‘at sundry times and in divers manners’ (Heb. 1:1): ‘My Father worketh hitherto, and I work’ (John 5:17). This virus may be a means that God uses in order to bring many to themselves and to repentance, and to harvest many ready souls for His eternal Kingdom. Therefore, for those who surrender and entrust themselves to the Providence of God all will contribute for their good: ‘All things work together for good to them that love God’ (Rom. 8:28).

 

Thus, there is no room for morbid dismay. Neither should we resist the measures that the government is taking in order to diminish the spreading of the afflictions we see in the lives of so many people. It is wrong to go against the authorities. We should do whatever the Government says, because they are not asking for us to deny our faith, they are only asking us to take a few measures for the common wellfare of all people, so that this trial may pass, and this is not at all unreasonable. Some people take it too confessionally, they raise flags and play the martyrs and the confessors. For us there is no doubt: we shall show pure submission to the orders of the Government. It is unfair to disobey the Government since, when we fall ill, it is to their hospitals that we run and they are the ones who undertake all the expenses and our care.

 

This is the ethos of Christ that God showed in His life on earth and this is the apostolic commandment that we have received: ‘...be subject to principalities and powers, obey magistrates, be ready to every good work, speak evil of no man, be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men’ (cf. Tit. 3: 1-2); and ‘Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme...’ (see 1 Pet. 2:13-17). If we do not obey our governors who are not asking much, how will we obey God, Who gives us a divine law, which is far more sublime than any human law? If we keep the law of God we are above human laws, as the apologists of the 2nd century said during the Roman Empire which was persecuting the Christians. It is surprising to see in the country where we live, in the United Kingdom, that the footballers show such understanding and discernment so as to be the first to withdraw from their activities with docility towards the indications of the Government to take prophylactic measures. It would be sad for us, people of faith, to fail reaching the measure of the footballers and showing the same docility towards the authorities for which our Church prays.

 

If they ask us to stop our Church services, let us simply surrender and bless the Providence of God. Besides, this reminds us of an old tradition that the Fathers had in Palestine: in Great Lent, on the Sunday of Cheese fare, after the mutual forgiveness, they would go out in the desert for forty days without Liturgy; they would only continue in fasting and prayer so as to prepare and return on Palm Sunday to celebrate in a godly way the Passion and the Resurrection of the Lord. And so, our present circumstances force us to live again that which existed of old in the bosom of the Church. That is to say, they force us to live a more hesychastic life, with more prayer, which will however make up for the lack of the Divine Liturgy and will prepare us to celebrate with greater desire and inspiration the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Thus, we will turn this plague into a triumph of hesychasm. In any case, whatever God allows in our life is out of His goodness for the well-being of man, for He never wants His creature to be harmed in any way.

Certainly, if we will be deprived of the Divine Liturgy for a longer period of time, we can endure it. What do we receive in the Liturgy? We partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, which are filled with His grace. This is a great honour and benefit for us, but we also receive the grace of God in many other ways. When we practice hesychastic prayer, we abide in the Presence of God with the mind in the heart calling upon the holy Name of Christ. The Divine Name brings us the grace of Christ because it is inseparable from His Person and leads us into His Presence. This Presence of Christ which is purifying, cleanses us from our transgressions and sins, it renews and illumines our heart so that the image of God our Saviour, Christ, may be formed therein.

 

If we shall not have Easter in the Church, let us remember that every contact with Christ is Easter. We receive grace in the Divine Liturgy because the Lord Jesus is present in it, He performs the sacrament and He is the One imparted to the faithful. However, when we invoke His Name, we enter the same Presence of Christ and receive the same grace. Therefore, if we are deprived of the Liturgy, we always have His Name, we are not deprived of the Lord. Moreover, we also have His word, especially His Gospel. If His word dwells continually in our heart, if we study it and pray it, if it becomes our language with which we speak to God as He spoke to us, then we shall have again the grace of the Lord. For His words are words of eternal life (John 6:68), and the same mystery is performed, we receive His grace and are sanctified.

 

Furthermore, each time we show kindness to our brethren the Lord is well-pleased, He considers that we did it in His Name and He rewards us. We show kindness to our brethren and the Lord rewards us with His grace. This is another way in which we can live in the Presence of the Lord. We can have the grace of the Lord through fasting, alms giving and every good deed. So, if we are forced to avoid gathering in Church, we can also be united in spirit in these holy virtues which are known within the Body of Christ, the holy Church, and which preserve the unity of the faithful with Christ and with the other members of His Body. All the things we do for God is a Liturgy, for they minister unto our salvation. The Liturgy is the great event of the life of the Church, wherein the faithful have the possibility to exchange their little life with the boundless life of God. However, the power of this event depends on the preparation we perform before, through all the things we have mentioned, through prayer, good deeds, fasting, love for neighbour, repentance.

 

Therefore, my dear brethren, it is not necessary to make heroic confessions against the Government for the prophylactic measures that it takes for the good of all people. Neither should we despair, but only wisely machinate ways so as not to lose our living communication with the Person of Christ. Nothing can harm us, we must simply be patient for a certain period of time and God will see our patience, take away every obstacle, every temptation and we shall again see the dawn of joyful days, and we shall celebrate our common hope and love that we have in Christ Jesus.

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Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. John Maximovitch: Nothing is Fearful for the Person Whose Hope is in God

Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world (source)

  
Note: This beautiful talk from St. John the Wonderworker highlights the beauty of a life without fear as long as one has hope in our Lord. May we obey our medical, civic and spiritual leaders, and pray with trust and hope in our Lord, as we weather this storm.
  
"Where can I go from Thy Spirit, and where can I escape from Thy presence? If I go up into heaven, Thou art there; if I go down into hades, Thou art present there. If I take up my wings toward the dawn, and make mine abode in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand guide me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 138: 7-10) 

These divinely inspired words of the Psalmist David should be particularly in our thoughts during these days, when the entire world is literally quaking, and from every direction comes news of all kinds of distress, shocks and calamities.

Before you can concentrate on what is occurring in one country, you are distracted by even more threatening events which have unexpectedly erupted someplace else; and before you can get a grasp on them, yet other news distracts your attention to still some other location, forcing you to lose track of the previous ones, even though they have by no means reached their conclusion. 

 

In vain do “the representatives of the nations consult in order to find a remedy for the common affliction. They encourage one another and others, saying, 'peace, peace,' when there is no peace." (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11)

 

Calamities in the lands where they are unfolding do not come to an end, when suddenly new ones begin in places which had been considered safe and calm. 

 

Those who flee from troubles in one place find themselves amid troubles elsewhere that are even worse. "As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into his house and leaned with his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.” (Amos 5:19) Or, as another prophet says, "He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit; and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble." (Isaiah 24: 18)

 

This is what we see happening in our days.

 

A person sets out for his peaceful occupation and suddenly falls the victim of military action which erupted in a place where no one had expected it. 

 

The person who escapes danger from military action, finds himself amid the horrors of natural catastrophes, of an earthquake or typhoon. 

 

Many meet their death where some had escaped it, while other people are prepared to risk their lives rather than waste away in places considered to be secure, because they anticipate other catastrophes which could soon come upon those areas.

 

It would seem that there is no place on the globe in recent times that remains a peaceful and calm haven from troubles in the world. 

 

Everything has become complicated: politically, economically, socially. "Danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren," as the Apostle Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 11: 26). And to these dangers in our days we must add also, "danger in the air and danger from the sky," which are especially frightful. 

 

But when all the dangers listed by the Apostle Paul were endured by this glorious Chief of the Apostles, he had a great consolation. He knew that he was suffering for Christ and that Christ would reward him for these sufferings. "For I know Whom I have believed, and I am sure that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me" (2 Timothy 1: 12).  He knew that the Lord would grant him the strength necessary to endure even greater tribulations, and for this reason he boldly says, "I can do all things in Jesus Christ Who strengthens me" (Philippians 4: 13).

 

These current catastrophes are so terrible for us, because they have come upon us because we are not firm in the Faith, and because we are not enduring them for the sake of Christ. For that reason, we have no hope of receiving crowns for them. 

 

And what is even worse, and leaves us powerless in our efforts to counteract our misfortunes, is that we do not strengthen ourselves with the power of Christ.  We put our hope, not in God, but in human powers and means.  We forget the words of the Sacred Scriptures: "Put not your hope in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he whose hope is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God" Psalm 145: 3, 5). And again: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain" (Psalm 126: 1).

   

We keep trying to find a firm foundation apart from God. And so, we suffer what was foretold by the prophet: "This sin will become for you like the sudden collapse of the wall of a strong city under siege," and which is then immediately vanquished (Isaiah 30: 13). Woe to those who are leaning against those walls! Just as a collapsing wall crushes those who are leaning on it, in the same way, with the destruction of false hopes, all those who placed their trust in them will perish. Their hope will be like a "staff of reed." "When they grasped you with the hand, you broke, and pierced their shoulders; and when they leaned upon you, you broke, and injured their loins" (Ezekiel 29: 7).

 

It is entirely different with those who seek the help of God.  "God is our refuge and strength, our helper in the troubles that grievously befall us. So we will not fear though the earth should rock and mountains be hurled into the heart of the sea" (Psalm 45: 2-3).

 

Nothing is fearful for the person whose hope is in God. He does not fear men who work evil.  "The Lord is my light and my Savior: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the guard of my life; from whom shall I shrink?" (Psalm 26: 1). The horrors of war are not fearful for him. "Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, my hope is in Him" (Psalm 26: 3). He is calm when he lives at home. "He who dwells in the help of the Most High, will live in the protection of the God of Heaven" (Psalm 90: 1). He is ready to sail across the sea. "Thy ways are in the sea, and Thy paths in many waters" (Psalm 76: 20).  Boldly, literally on wings, he flies through the sky to distant lands, saying, "Even there Thy hand will guide me and Thy right hand will hold me" (Psalm 138: 10). He knows that if it pleases God to protect his life, "A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand: but it will not come near you" (Psalm 90: 7).  

 

Even death is not fearful for him, because, for the person whose life is Christ, death is gain (Philippians 1: 21). “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, 'For Thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8: 35-39). "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7: 1).  

 

This is what the Lord says: "Loose the bonds of wickedness; forgive unjust debts; let the oppressed go free; tear up every unjust agreement. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house.  When you see the naked, cover him, and do not mistreat your own people. Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am” (Isaiah 58: 6-9).  

 

Lord, teach me to do Thy will and hear me on the day that I call upon Thee! 

May Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have placed our hope in Thee.

Humble John, Bishop of Shanghai

August 30, 1937

St. Alexander Nevsky

@ 2020 "Russkiy Pastyr": English translation of the article "To the Orthodox Flock of Shanghai" 

(source)

  

St. John Maximovitch (source)

  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!